About "Driven to Drink"

"Tyrants, sectaries, seducers, and heretics do nothing else but drive us into the Bible, to make us read more diligently therein, and with more fervency to sharpen our prayers."

-Martin Luther

Hi. Welcome to my brand new blog. I'd like to start by explaining a little about why I feel called to start it.

So, the fact is, life can be pretty frustrating. And the constant presence of stressors--from traffic, to workplace drama, to 24-hour media, which is increasingly tailor-made to "push our buttons" and whip us into a frenzy of self-righteous feigned omniscience--is not helping a bit. In fact, take a just a minute, and tell me: other than someone who lives in your house (spouse, significant other, parent, sibling, etc), who was the last person who made you angry?

Let me take a leap here...if you're like me, it was someone you either don't know or don't interact with face to face. Was it someone who cut you off in traffic? Someone in the DMV or the grocery store?

Was it someone online? A facebook friend? A blogger? A news editor?

Was it a celebrity? A public official? Probably someone whose party affiliation is different from your own?

I could be way off. But I think when we get frustrated and angry, and when we don't have a way to work it out and reconcile with the other person face to face, as Jesus commands (see Matthew 18:15-20), it can be harmful to our souls, AND our bodies. It can make us eat too much. It can make us drink too much. It can make us spend too much. It can make us sleep too little. It can make us watch TV, go online, or play video games until our brain is ready to leak out our ears like jelly.

Or...it can drive us to drink something else altogether. Something that shows us the part of ourselves that is contributing to our anger and frustration, and what God wants to do about it. It can drive us to drink the Living Water that Jesus offers us each and every time we immerse ourselves in God's Word.

This blog is here because I often find myself frustrated. I often find that fear, anxiety, anger and even hatred are checking into the motel of my mind while I should have been at the front desk. And I believe that if I blog, not just about what makes me angry, but about what the Bible says about it, and how it can convict me and you, there's a chance it can bring us to repentance before the Living Lord, and experience the Grace of God's forgiveness. That's the hope.

So as time goes by, I'll post about what's "Driving me to Drink," and how God can quench our thirst.